Sorry guys for the rare posts this time. My bosses keep me quite busy; and as Vu’s bar is the remaining smoking oasis in the whole hotel, it requires me to come in the noon, but stay till late in the night...

One of the things which kept me busy, was a enquiry of one of our alcohol distributors. They had a beverage show in the ball room of the hotel and specially requested that I create for them some mixed drinks with selected liquors.

I am telling you: it was not that easy; just have yourself a look, what the must products were:

1. •Ksarak [arak]
   

2. •Remy Martin Grand Cru [cognac]
   

3. •Marquis de Puységur [armagnac]
   

4. •Chateau du Breuil [calvados]
   

5. •E. Lustau Cream Deluxe [sherry]
   

6. •E. Lustau Fino [sherry]
   

7. •E. Lustau Olorosso [sherry]
   

8. •Limonello [lemoncello]
   

Ok, the spirits were not really a challenge, except of the arak; though this was even harder! But also to recommend something good with sherry wasn’t easy. Jay of sloshed gave me the actual impulse - he recently wrote about cobblers in his blog!

So following cocktails I recommended and also crafted for the event:

Fino Cobbler
Fino sherry shaken with sugar and lemon slices.
As the Olorosso Cobbler the Fino Cobbler was great. The difference was the much lighter flavor - I will try it soon with grapefruit slices instead of lemon and I am sure, that this will be an even greater drink!

Charmonello
Remy GC with mint leaves and sugar, floated with lemoncello.
This drink is definitely a julep - but the flavors are bringing a Mojito and a Julep together. Surprisingly I was recognizing citrus flavors in the Remy, when I tried it! So lemoncello was the right answer to underline the lightness and crispiness of the cognac!

Vieux Jeu [de Normandy]
Old Fashioned styled drink, which was featuring calvados [instead of whiskey] and self made apple syrup instead of sugar.
This was the most popular drink on the show. That quite surprised me, because it just featured the taste of the calvados (only a bit sweeter, colder and weaker than a straight shot), but the people really loved it!

Marquis DeLuxe
Stirred armagnac with cream sherry; served in an arak washed cocktail glass.
This was a quite interesting but demanding drink - from the approach similar to a Manhattan cocktail. The arak worked surprisingly well and brightened up the aromas of the other two beverages. Cream sherry and armagnac worked also very well together as both featuring flavors of dried fruits and nuts.

Pictures by Richard J. Shirazian | www.cre8.ae

We were quite surprised, that our mixology section was so well recognized. We poured quite a lot of drinks for the folks!

What do you think about the drinks? Feel free to comment!